-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- At least 510 people were killed in Caracas , Venezuela , in December , giving support to a recent report that called the city the murder capital of the world .

A chalk message reads No More Murders as a student protests killings in Caracas in this file photo .

It 's against that backdrop that the country 's minister for Interior Relations and Justice announced efforts this week to combat crime in 2009 .

Minister Tareck El Aissami said Monday he will form 50 community police units in Caracas and take other measures so that `` we can have in a short time a culture of peace , tranquility and calm for all the Venezuelan public . ''

By all accounts , it will be a tall order .

Foreign Policy magazine said in September that Caracas tops the list of five murder capitals of the world , with an official tally of 130 homicides per 100,000 residents . The city , which is Venezuela 's capital , has about 4 million inhabitants .

Foreign Policy is owned by The Washington Post Co. and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace .

The United States made the magazine 's top five , too , with New Orleans , Louisiana coming in at No. 3 . Its murder rate is estimated as 67 per 100,000 by its police department and 95 per 100,000 by the FBI .

Still , the rate in Caracas comes in far ahead of the following four murderous capitals .

`` Caracas has become far more dangerous in recent years than any South American city , even beating out the once notorious Bogota , -LSB- Colombia -RSB- , '' Foreign Policy said .

`` What 's worse , the city 's official homicide statistics likely fall short of the mark because they omit prison-related murders as well as deaths that the state never gets around to properly ` categorizing . '

`` The numbers also do n't count those who died while ` resisting arrest , ' suggesting that Caracas ' cops -- already known for their brutality against student protesters -- might be cooking the books , '' the magazine said .

CNN affiliate Globovision TV reported this week that officials reported 510 killings in Caracas this month , capping a particularly brutal year .

`` It 's shocking , '' said Jennifer McCoy , director of The Americas Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta . `` It 's the biggest concern of the population -- crime and security . ''

Federico Welsch , a political science professor at La Universidad de Simon Bolivar in Caracas for 25 years , has seen that crime up close .

`` Violence is the major problem for Venezuelans , according to any source you use , '' Welsch told CNN on Tuesday . `` It 's doubly sad because , primarily , the deaths occur almost exclusively in the poor sectors , and , secondarily , it 's among youth under 30 years old . ''

McCoy points out that the killings are `` basically poor on poor . ''

From the 1970s to the 1990s , the poverty rate nearly tripled , from 25 percent to 65 percent , McCoy said . Even though the poverty rate declined during the oil boom that started in the 1990s , she said , the rate remains high .

`` It 's a combination of economic-driven crime ... with other types of gangs , to police abuse , '' McCoy said . `` The police are not properly trained and not properly equipped . ''

Anti-crime efforts in Caracas also suffered , she said , when the national government took over the city 's police force in 2002 .

`` There has been trouble getting the police force back to par , '' she said .

Welsch said he doubts the anti-crime measures El Aissami announced Monday will work .

`` You ca n't resolve this problem with police , '' Welsch said . `` The government is co-responsible for there being so many firearms . There is no good gun control , there are no permits and there is no good control over the militias . ''

The problem , Welsch and McCoy said , transcends the drug trade and gang battles .

`` You do n't have the guerrilla problems , '' McCoy said . `` You do n't have drug cartels . You do n't have a large mafia . ''

Welsch lays much of the blame on the 10-year-old government of socialist President Hugo Chavez .

`` The government discourse , '' he said , `` is that if you are lacking something it is because of injustice . Then look for it , take it away from those who have it . You can obtain justice with your own hands . ''

The magazine lists , in descending order , Caracas ; Cape Town , South Africa ; New Orleans ; Moscow , Russia ; and Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea , as the top five murder capitals in the world .

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Foreign Policy magazine names Caracas , Venezuela , the murder capital of the world

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Venezuela to step up efforts to fight crime in Caracas in 2009

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Violence is gang - and police-related , and often poor on poor

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New Orleans , Louisiana , comes in third on magazine 's list of top five